The Burrows, Halloween 2019
by Tyler-Z-Crimson
Summary: A one-shot Halloween special for The Burrows


The rain battered down on the windscreen of the cruiser as Judy drove it through the streets of Zootopia on her way home from the precinct. Her recent promotion came with the benefit of being able to take the car home and luckily her and Nick's apartment had a secure parking lot to put it in.

She looked up to their penthouse apartment as she turned into the end of the street and to her surprise it was in darkness. She looked down at the cruisers clock, it was only 8:30 she expected Nick to be home but didn't think too much of it. She turned into the entrance of the parking lot and rolled down the window to punch in the code for the barrier, however, as usual she was too short and had to undo her seat-belt and lean right out of the car to reach the keypad.

Once she had parked up beside Nick's car which she wasn't expecting to find there after seeing the apartment in darkness she made her way to the elevator and pushed the button for the 23rd floor, praying that nobody else would call it. She had had enough social interaction for one day, she just wanted to grab a glass of wine and curl up beside Nick, well, if he was actually in.

Judy made it to the apartment without having to talk to anybody else. She opened the apartment door and tossed her keys in the bowl as she walked in. Judy flicked the switch for the lights, but nothing happened, she tried turning it off and on a few times, but to no avail. She took another step into the room and heard a slight scratch of a claw on the wooden floor. her ears pricked and she was instantly on high alert. Her paw went to her him and found her pepper spray which she had forgot to leave at the precinct.

"Nick?" Judy called nervously into the dark, she could hardly see a thing, if only she had her fox's night vision. Something padded around the room, Judy's hearing had pinpointed it to the opposite corner.

"Nick, is that you? You're scaring me," Judy said with a quiver in her voice. She was just about to sprint to the kitchen when she saw 2 eyes staring at her from the far side of the room. Judy froze for a moment before lurching towards the kitchen, only for the thing to appear right in front of her. She sprayed whoever it was in the face with her pepper spray at point blank range and pulled the cord to turn on the kitchen light.

"What the fuck Judy!" Nick said through gritted teeth as he clutched at his face.

"What are you doing? I almost had a heart attack!" Judy shouted, punching Nick repeatedly in the arm.

"Why do you have pepper spray? Fuck, this hurts," Nick hissed in pain, he was still on the floor clutching his face, frantically rubbing his eyes with his paws to try and ease the pain. Judy's brain engaged and she tried to help Nick up, but she couldn't make him stand.

"We need to wash it out, come on," She said. Judy tried to help Nick up again, succeeding this time. She led him over to the kitchen sink and ran water for Nick to wash his face.

"I'm so sorry Slick, I forgot to take it off before I came home and then you scared me and I just sprayed you, I didn't know it was you…" Judy would have went on for hours, but thankfully Nick stopped her.

"Will you stop rambling and help me out here," Nick said grumpily from the kitchen sink.

After about 10 minutes of washing his eyes and trying to get the spray out of his nose Nick was finally able to see again. Although he was still in pain.

"I almost forgot how painful that stuff actually is," He said as he sat down beside Judy on their couch.

"I'll be sure to remind you next time you pounce at me in the dark." Judy lifted her arm up and Nick lay his head in her lap looking up at her.

"You excited for our Halloween shift?" Nick asked, knowing fine well that Judy hated working the Halloween shift.

"Have you heard what that overgrown bull has got us doing this year?" Judy huffed.

"No, but I bet I'm going to love it." If Nick's face wasn't still on fire, he would be getting a little giddy right now.

"He wants us to dress up in Halloween costumes and try to find mammals selling drugs to kids. I'm sure he is only doing this because he knows I can't stand Halloween here," Judy grumbled.

"Aww, don't be such a scaredy bunny, think of all the good we will be doing. Plus, you could wear that skimpy little harlequin costume again." Nick winked up at Judy and gave a low growl into her neck.

"No way!" Judy announced, "If we're doing this, I'm not making it any more enjoyable for you than it already will be."

"I thought you liked Halloween anyway?"

"I did… before I moved to the city. At home it was more of a family celebration, but here… here it's just kids getting drunk or high, then you get the girls wearing ridiculous costumes that don't leave a lot to the imagination. It's just chaos."

Nick thought for a moment and came up with an idea that might just make Judy enjoy her Halloween and if he was lucky, she might even wear her harlequin costume.  
"Your folks will be having a party, right?"

"Yeah but it's not till Saturday and we're at work," Judy said curiously.

"Well tell you what, I'll have a word with Bogo tomorrow and persuade him to let us have the Saturday off for doing the Halloween shift for him."

"He'll never let us go on Halloween weekend, it's one of the busiest," Judy said, waving Nick's idea off.

"You just leave him to me Fluff."

* * *

Judy turned up at the precinct for the Halloween night shift dressed in a glow in the dark skeleton costume with the hood down. Nick on the other paw had went all out on his costume and came in behind Judy wearing a faux leather waistcoat with buckles up the front and a pocket watch chained to it. Over that he had a long faux leather coat that almost trailed behind him. He had a black fedora on his head and a bandanna tied so that it covered his muzzle, but he hadn't finished there. As they both stepped up to Clawhouser's desk he pulled a plastic crossbow off his back and stood staring Ben in the eyes.

"Evening Benjamin," Nick said in a gruff voice.

"Cut it out slick," Judy said, punching Nick in the arm, "I'm not working with you if you're like this all night."

"Like what? We need to blend in, don't we?" Nick replied. No doubt grinning underneath his bandanna.

Judy was about to speak but Ben got there first, "The chiefs already in the bullpen, He's got a big operation planned."

"Thanks Ben, we'll head in now," Judy said. Nick swung his crossbow back over his shoulder and tipped his hat to Ben as he walked away. Judy saw it and grabbed his paw to drag him into the bullpen with a frustrated, "Come on."

* * *

Bogo had a map of the city up on the wall when they walked into the already half full bullpen, Judy instantly knew where they would be going as soon as she saw the areas that Bogo had marked with red Xs on the map. One X was right where the Eaten by Monsters night club was and over the years that place had become known for two things, overdosing and Halloween. If Bogo was sending anybody there it was bound to be her and Nick.

"Right listen up!" Bogo announced, tapping a pointing stick on the side of his lectern, "This map shows where the city's biggest Halloween parties are happening tonight and we… we are going undercover to try to save a few mammals lives."

Bogo paused and looked around the room to make sure he had everyone's attention, "I want teams of two in each club, I need you to take down the dealers discreetly, so we don't tip them all off. Fangmeyer, Wolford… You're in Hell Bellow. Grizzoli, Delgato… take The Griffin. Johnson, Andersen… The Crescent. And that leaves You two… Hopps, Wilde… You have the honour of looking after the fine mammals of Eaten By Monsters," Bogo smiled at Judy and was looking at her over his glasses, "I'm sure you can handle it," He added just to rile the bunny up even more.

* * *

Nick swung around the corner, his long coat swishing behind him. Judy followed, dragging her feet as she plodded grumpily down the street.

"We are supposed to be going to Halloween party, at least try to look happy about it," Nick said taking her paw in his.

"Sorry I just know that this is going to be dreadful," Judy huffed.

"I'll make it up to you at your parents this weekend," Nick said with a sly grin.

"We got it off?" Judy squeaked, hopping up beside Nick with her ears straight up in her skeleton suit.

"Yep, when we finish tonight, we don't have to come back in till Monday," Nick said, feeling rather proud of himself.

"That's great, I can't wait to tell Mom and Dad that we can make it," Judy threw her arms around Nick and hugged him tight, "Now let's go get some bad guys."

They walked towards the Club together and joined the back of the line to get in. which was approaching the corner of the block by this point. They could have jumped the queue, but they didn't want to risk blowing their cover, so they stood between the ropes, crammed in like sardines with mammals large and small. It took almost an hour, but they finally got in. As soon as they walked through the doors the thumping of the bass vibrated through them and Judy almost got lost in the dry ice smoke. Nick couldn't help but laugh at her glow in the dark ears sticking up above the smoke.

"Erm, Carrots…" Nick said, holding his laughter in as best as he could, "I think we should get a better vantage point."

"What do you mean?" Judy asked. Nick could only assume that her paws were on her hips. He pointed down at the smoke and waited for her to realise.

"Oh… I think we might need to get to higher ground," Judy said with a sigh. They headed over to the side of the room where there was a raised platform with booths on and rope handrails around it.

"Sorry, VIP only," A serious looking lion said with his arm across the entrance.

"No problem," Nick said respectfully before turning away to think of another plan. He knew better than most that when drugs where drugs were involved in clubs it was more often than not the security that brought them in.

"What now then?" Judy asked from her dry ice disguise.

"Balcony," Nick announced, seeming out of nowhere.

"What are you on about?" Judy said with her head cocked.

"Up there. If we can get on that balcony, we will be able to see the whole club," Nick said, pointing up to the crowded balcony that ran along the back wall of the club. They just had to find a way up, Nick looked around but couldn't see a way up and Judy wasn't much use from down in the fog, so she suggested going to the bar and hopping onto a stool.

As soon as they arrived at the bar Judy prodded Nick and nodded to the mammal behind the bar, He was a young bear and kept rubbing at his nose and shaking his head to clear something out of there.

"Why are they always huge?" Nick asked, "Why can't we get a case where the main suspect is a frail old mouse or a rat?"

Judy was building herself up to ask the bear if they could take him somewhere quiet to talk, but Nick stopped her, "We need to see who the dealer is, they might come back here," Nick whispered to Judy. They grabbed a seat at the bar and ordered some drinks from the obviously high bear, his eyes were wide, and pupils dilated, couple that with his distracted, almost absent expression and there was no doubt that this mammal was on something.

It didn't take long for a gazelle to walk up and blatantly ask for drugs.

"I can't help you with that, but I can offer you our cocktail menu?" The bear said, handing the gazelle a menu from behind the bar, "you can get them all with the house special."

"fine, a tequila sunrise then. Make it a double special," The gazelle grumbled, he was getting more and more frustrated by the minute.

"are you sure now? It's strong stuff," the bear asked cautiously.

"Just do it."

Nick and Judy watched as the bear made the gazelle's drink and grabbed 2 small plastic wraps from a fanny pack that was clipped around his waist and emptied both lots of powder into the glass, mixing it until it had dissolved.

"there we go," he said as he handed the glass over and held his paw out for payment. Judy was ready to jump on the gazelle and Nick was about to take the bear, but they paused when the bear grumpily reminded the gazelle that he had got a double. 2 wolves that were also sat at the bar stood up and crowded the gazelle until he begrudgingly handed over the extra cash.

Nick gave Judy a worried look and she looked back and shook her head, there was no chance they could take all 4 of them if they decided to put up a fight. Nick stood and flicked his head towards the bathroom for Judy to follow him.

"We're gonna need backup for this," Nick said as he fumbled for his radio under his costume.

"Here," Judy huffed handing him her radio. "I told you that costume was ridiculous."

"It is not ridiculous, it's just layered," Nick said as he snatched the radio.

"whatever you say," Judy said shaking her head again.

Nick radioed Clawhouser for backup but the only one available was the Chief, everyone else was on a call. Bogo had rushed out of his office as soon as Clawhouser called him, he took any chance to get back into the action that he could and would probably get to Nick and Judy quicker than anybody else could anyway.

* * *

The chief arrived and wasn't afraid to just barge passed the bouncers on the door. He was well known, and his uniform and flick of his badge made most mammals move out of his way. Nick was stood just inside waiting for him while Judy kept an eye on the bear and 2 wolves at the bar, snapping photos of him dealing on her phone whenever a customer came.

"What sort of shit do I have to pull you out of this time Wilde?" Bogo asked sarcastically when he saw Nick in the shadows of the entrance.

"One bear, two wolves and a load of drugs, what could possible go wrong? "

"So, should I just pick the two wolves up and watch you two struggle with the bear?" The chief said with a hint of a smile.

"Who's put a dollar in the dickhead today? Where's the grumpy, serious buffalo gone?" Nick said, slightly taken aback by how jovial the chief was.

"I'm just happy to lend a hoof and talking like that will still land you a month of parking duty,"

"You see, now I don't know if you're being serious or not," Nick said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Deadly," Bogo announced with a stern stare.

"Nope, still no idea," Nick said with a shrug of his shoulders as he walked away from Bogo back into the club. He saw Judy sat at the bar with her foot thumping in her skeleton costume that was glowing under the UV lights.

"Chief I think officer skelebobs is tired of waiting." Nick said struggling to contain himself.

Bogo grunted and they walked up to her, the barman froze when he saw Bogo and the 2 wolves tried to slip away quietly but were stopped by a skeleton and a monster hunter standing in their way.

"nobody's going anywhere," Bogo announced. The bear tried to rush past Bogo but ran straight into his outstretched arm and would have hit the deck if Bogo hadn't caught him.

"We can either do this the easy way or the hard way, now which is it?" Bogo asked as he held the bear up by the collar of his shirt. After a few moments of silence Bogo dropped the bear to floor "I thought so," He said as the bear stood up and dusted himself off.

"We aint sold nuthin," one of the wolves said to Nick.

"Who said you had?" He asked with his head cocked and a grin on his face. The wolf's jaw dropped open and he stuttered a pitiful excuse before being led to the back room along with the other wolf and the bar man. Bogo and Judy took the mammals through while Nick gathered any evidence from the bar.

In the back room, Bogo and Judy were sitting the mammals down when the club's owner came in.

"Andrea, you cretin," He shouted, pointing his paw at the bear, "I give you chance after chance and you repay me by selling drugs to my customers!"

Andrea tried to speak to defend himself but the club owner stopped him, "Don't say anything, I won't protect you this time, you're on your own and you're certainly out of a job!" his voice was filled with rage and he disappeared as quickly as he arrived.

"I didn't sell anything." Andrea said, he was almost pleading with Bogo and Judy, he obviously knew that he was screwed.

The wolves on the other hand were suspiciously quiet and kept glancing at each other. Judy whispered something to the chief who huffed in agreement.

"You," Bogo demanded, pointing his hoof at a wolf, "turn around face the wall, arms up, we are going to have to search each of you."

"Nah man, you can't do that." The wolf protested.

"Either I can do it here or we can get a little more intrusive at the precinct," Bogo said with one eyebrow raised.

"Okay, Okay," the wolf said. The prospect of a strip search didn't sound to appealing.

Bogo searched all 3 of the mammals and found three wraps on one wolf and bag full of them on the bear. Judy's radio went off just as Bogo finished the search, it was McHorn, he had arrived with the van to get the three back to the precinct.

"It's time to go, just don't do anything stupid," Judy groaned as her and Bogo started to lead the 3 to the van. Nick tagged along as they passed him with his box of evidence.

"There's so many drugs in here, keep your grubby hooves out of it McHorn," Nick said as he placed it in the front of the van.

"You know me to well Wilde," McHorn said, turning the key to start the van.

Nick shut the door and banged his paw on the side signalling for McHorn to drive away. As he did Bogo and Judy were revealed standing on the other side.

"Well I guess we should start the endless paperwork for these 3 then," Nick huffed.

"I think you two have earned an early finish, I'll take the hit on this one," Bogo said. Which was met with a huge grin from Judy.

"Are you sure Sir? We don't mind doing it," she said rather unconvincingly.

"Speak for yourself," Nick scoffed sarcastically.

"No, you two did good today, now get lost before I change my mind," Bogo said with a hint of a smile.

"Thank you chief," Judy said before skipping over to Nick and heading back to their car to go home.

* * *

Nick was lying on the couch in the living room searching for something half decent to watch on the TV. Judy had told him that she was going to put her pyjamas on and to pick a film for when she got back.

"The nightmare before Christmas," Nick said to himself with a shrug, "that should do," he paused the TV and was about to shout for Judy when he heard her voice.

"Hey Slick?" She called from the hall.

"Yeah?" Nick replied cautiously.

"Close your eyes," Judy said, her voice full of mischief.

"Okay…"

Nick lay back with his eyes closed and awaited his fate. A slight rocking on the couch told him that Judy had just climbed on the other end, then the touch of her paw on his chest and a weight on his hips confirmed that she was indeed here.

"Open your eyes," Judy whispered.

As he opened his eyes Judy plucked his costumes hat off his head and put it on the back of hers.

"Is this costume better?" She asked with a huge grin. She had changed into her skimpy Harley Quinn outfit, fully in the knowledge that Nick wouldn't be able to resist her in it.

After taking a minute to admire his bunny Nick let out a little growl and said, "I think it would look better on the floor," Before flipping them over and pinning her paws up.

"I thought you were saving this for the party?" He asked.

"Who says I can't wear it twice?" she replied.


End file.
